- If you're looking for a delicious perennial vegetable
you can harvest for 20 years, then this video's for you
because today we're planting asparagus.
Asparagus is one of those crops
that I've put off growing for awhile
because quite frankly, I didn't have the space
that I knew I would be for quite some time.
Asparagus can produce spears for 15, 20,
even more years than that.
So you better know where you want it to go.
It's a crop that does well here in San Diego, zone 10b,
all the way down to zone three.
So pretty much anyone watching this video
can have a successful crop of asparagus.
The interesting thing about it is it's monoecious.
There can be male or female asparagus plants,
and most people tend to grow male plants
because it seems like they produce more spears.
The female ones tend to spend more energy
developing seeds and berries,
and the male ones tend to put up more spears.
So when you buy asparagus plants,
you'll typically see them sold as males.
The first thing you need to know
when you're planting your asparagus is variety selection.
There's a ton of different varieties.
We'll throw some up on the screen here
and I'll share the ones that I'm growing
and planting out right now.
You have hybrid varieties and heirloom varieties.
You have ones with green stalks, ones with purple stalks,
ones that grow thicker stalks,
ones that are selected for predominantly males
versus females, and some that grow in cold environments.
So the ones that I have here,
I have one green and one purple.
The green one has a crazy name.
It's UC157F2, which is supposed to just be
a fantastic commercial-level producer of asparagus.
And then I have a purple variety
that is just called Sweet Purple Spring Early.
So I'm doing a bit of a mix.
I believe the purple one should be a little bit better
to eat fresh in something like a salad,
whereas the green ones are great for roasting
and cooking up in some kind of way.
When you're growing asparagus,
the bed selection and bed placement
is absolutely crucial because, like I said,
they grow for 20 years,
so you better know that where you plant them
is where you want them to be.
And site selection is extremely important.
Asparagus wants pretty much full sun.
It wants good drainage in the bed,
and it wants little weed competition.
For me, in my climate,
with the weeds that I know I have in the ground,
that means I opted to go with a raised bed.
Although you could do an in-ground asparagus bed
if you have a lotta space
and you're not too worried about the weed pressure.
And then you wanna think about the aesthetics
of your asparagus bed,
because it is sort of an unusual crop.
When you plant it, which we're gonna get into,
it's going to throw up spears
as it gets into the spring.
Then it's going to go into fern production,
so basically, all these leaves here, all the way into fall.
And then by the time fall is over
or starting to be over,
it pretty much just dies back for the winter
until it starts emerging again in spring.
And so, you wanna put it in a place
where you're not too worried
if it looks sort of dead and barren over the course
of the winter.
Let's get into planting asparagus.
You have two predominant methods.
One is going to be seeds or seedlings.
So these would be transplants over here,
but you could also start from seed.
The second, which we'll talk about first,
is planting from what's called an asparagus crown.
This is the dominant way
that most people plant their asparagus.
The problems with it is that it's basically just gated
by a plant supplier.
You can only get them in the spring
when they are produced and shipped out.
They tend to be a little more expensive,
but you also get a headstart
because this is a one- or two-year old crown or plant
that has been dug up.
So with crowns, what you wanna do,
and I'll be honest, guys, don't freak out
about the exact perfect way to plant the asparagus.
There's about three or four methods,
even just for crowns, from our research,
so I wouldn't stress too much.
But basically, what you wanna do is soak your crown
in some lukewarm water.
You can add some kind of mycorrhizal inoculant
or light fertilizer in there.
I don't think it's super important,
but as long as you soak it for about half an hour,
these roots are gonna be nice and pliable.
And then what you wanna do is,
if you're planting a lot of asparagus,
you can dig a trench.
So you can just grab this and pull a trench out
about 10 inches deep or so.
So let me just do that right here.
If you're planting maybe just a couple asparagus,
you could just dig a hole.
But for this example, let's dig a trench out.
And what you can do now
is you make a light little hill
within this furrow that you dug.
So I could take a little bit of soil,
pop it in here, and just make a light little hill here.
And then I can take the crown and I can sort of spread
the roots a little bit and set them
right on top of that furrow.
So I can do something basically like that,
making sure that the crown's beneath the surface
of the soil by a few inches, and then cover that up.
Now, you can also just lay it this way.
So you can lay it head to tail.
And if you want to space it properly,
this might actually be a great way to do it.
Because about every eight to 14 inches on a green variety,
you can space them out.
So you can go one here, space it, you can go one there.
It doesn't seem like there's a huge production difference
between doing it like this
or kinda burying it down like this.
The plant's basically going to find its way.
So in this example, what I'll just do
is I'll take this crown, I'll put it right about here,
and then I'm just going to backfill the soil around.
Make sure I know where I planted that and there you have it.
Now, if you're planting multiple rows,
you oftentimes wanna space them out
at least two or three feet.
So I could do a row right here
and I can do a row over here.
Like I said, with crowns,
it seems like everyone has their own preferred method.
Basically, as long as you bury it deep enough
and you space it out wide enough,
you're in a good spot.
The closer together you put your crowns
or your asparagus plants,
the smaller the spears are going to be.
Which is why when you're growing a purple one,
it might be good to space them a little bit closer,
like six to eight inches apart,
but you wanna cut those nice and fresh
for like a fresh salad preparation,
so you're okay having a smaller spear.
For these green ones,
you typically are going to cook them in the oven.
You want a nice big spear,
so you might space them out just a little bit more.
Now let's get into seeds or seedlings,
which is what I have over here,
which is how I'm personally making out
my first asparagus bed.
So now we're gonna take some seedlings
and transplant them in and talk a little bit
about soil prep and planting for this particular method.
A lotta you might be saying,
"Hey, Kevin, you just showed me how to do crowns,
which seems to be faster.
Why would I even opt for this method?"
Well, let me take you on over to Jacques' place,
who planted his asparagus in 2020,
and show you just how quickly this method can produce.
(light music)
So I snuck on over to our resident garden hermit,
Jacques', house to show you what his asparagus looks like
when it's grown straight from seed.
So in the summer of 2020, he planted in seed cells
just some asparagus seed.
In January 2021, he transplanted into this bed right here,
and in 2022, this year, this spring,
he harvested about a dozen or so spears
from effectively a first-year transplant.
And as you can see now,
it's grown into these huge ferns.
So it's past its spearing stage
and it's in its fern stage.
So this is just to give you an example
of how prolific it can be,
even in the first year after transplant, from seed.
Let's get into planting back here at the Epic Homestead.
And what I've got is a prepared bed.
This is just a standard sort of raised bed mix,
but I made a couple amendments.
I dumped about a bag of worm castings in here.
I used some soil conditioner.
It's effectively like a compost.
So, you can add manure, you can add worm castings,
you can add compost,
but it does want a nice rich soil.
So do some amendment if you're using
a straight up bagged mix.
I typically like to add
just a little bit more organic matter.
So what I have here are my purples and my greens.
And I'm just gonna do some rough spacing really quickly
and make sure that I'm planting as many as I actually need
to plant here.
So I'm going about 12 inches or so apart.
On the purple ones,
I'm actually gonna go a little bit closer.
I'll probably go about eight inches apart or so
and about a foot off the side of the bed here.
And the only other thing I have is just a little scoop,
and I do have some mycorrhizal inoculant,
which is just something that helps the roots,
especially of a transplanted plant,
establish a little bit better.
(light music)
So I've got the rough spacing that I like.
The next thing to do is just to start to dig these in.
And what I'm doing here is just popping it out of its pot.
You can see the roots are pretty solid here.
Nice looking roots, very healthy.
I'm just going to give it a quick roll
in our mycorrhizal inoculant here,
and then I'm gonna plant it at soil level.
So when I'm putting in the seedling,
it's not quite like the crown.
I'm gonna match the soil surface right here,
make sure I don't bury any of these leaves,
and just very, very gently toss it in here.
And we'll move on to the next one.
So it's that simple.
(light music continues)
Our asparagus is planted up now.
The thing that asparagus absolutely needs immediately
after transplanting is a good healthy dose of mulch,
so let's add that right now.
The reason why is because asparagus,
the roots and the crown, need to be absolutely protected
from major fluctuations in heat and cold.
What I'm gonna be using is a shredded straw mulch.
This is Gardenstraw.
I like the light color of straw.
It reflects a lot of heat off, as well as that sort of
light layer insulates the soil.
But you could use something like grass clippings
or dead shredded leaves, anything like that.
You just need about two or three inches of a mulch
on top of your newly planted crop.
The last thing to do is to water it in,
especially if you're using a shredded straw mulch.
The water, as you can see,
really sort of sets the mulch in place.
And you'd be surprised at how little,
even with heavy winds, it blows around.
It really sort of sticks together.
This is good if you're using shredded leaves as well,
but you just wanna give these asparagus
a really nice and healthy water in.
And at this point, part one is over.
We've planted it out.
Stay tuned and make sure to cultivate that subscribe button
because in summer and fall,
we'll do a part two care guide.
But asparagus is a long-season crop, guys,
so get it in the ground this season
and it will pay you off for decades to come.
Good luck in the garden and keep on growing.
(light music continues)